Christ of the Sunflower

Across the dappled grass I called you

Unhurried in the evening glow

To down your tools and stand before me

In simple presence, freed of stone

And learn the language of the slow

➰

No sadness that my solar fire

Conceals the fade of life’s profusion

Far more than this awaits the gaze

That lifts the veil of summer’s end

And sees beyond decay’s illusion

➰

I gaze at you who stares at me

Called by my petalled story

For in my flower, full spread for you

And in the art of mind and eye

Lies method to renew your glory

➰

No rite attends this start of fading

Save life is brought to nature’s peak

But hear the stillness build around you

As, caught, you lose the self you carry

And into my eyes your eyes speak

➰

Now lost in red and golden moment

A stolen silence takes…